“Buy Kisumu, Build Kisumu”; the message here is "let's-support-local-business", a kind of community boosterism. Buying close to home may be more than a feel-good, it's worth paying more for local matter. As a matter of fact, a number of researchers and organizations are taking a closer look at how money flows, and what they're finding shows the deep economic impact of keeping money in town; and how the fate of many cities around the nations and the world increasingly depend on it.
At the most basic level, when you buy local more money stays in the community. The New Economics Foundation, an independent economic organization, compared what happens when people buy produce at a supermarket against a local farmer's/ entrepreneur’s market or community supported agriculture program and found that twice the money stayed in the community when residents bought locally. That means those purchases are twice as efficient in terms of keeping the local economy alive.
Many local economies are failing not because too little cash comes in, but as a result of what happens to that money. Actually, money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going; when money is spent elsewhere like at big supermarkets, non-locally owned utilities and other services such as on-line retailers, "it flows out, like a wound. By shopping at the corner store instead of the big box, consumers keep their communities from becoming what "ghost towns" (areas devoid or free of neighborhood shops and services) are.
"Buy Kisumu, Build Kisumu" campaign can serve another function: alerting the city about gaps in the local market. For example, if consumers keep turning to online or supermarkets for a particular product, it signals an opportunity for someone local to make and sell the product. This is the way product innovations get made. The local producer can add creative elements that make either the product or materials used more appropriate to the place.
The point is not that communities should suddenly seek to be self-sufficient in all ways, but rather, to shift the balance. Can you produce more locally? Of course you can if the raw materials are there, and the raw materials are often us, human beings.
Another argument for buying local is that it enhances the "velocity" of money, or circulation speed, in the area. The idea is that if currency circulates more quickly, the money passes through more hands and more people have had the benefit of the money and what it has purchased for them. If you're buying local and not at a chain or branch store, chances are that store is not making a huge profit. That means more goes into input costs, supplies and upkeep, printing, advertising, paying employees which puts that money right back in the community."
As an economic principle, velocity has been considered a constant. It was stable in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s but starting in the '80s velocity has decreased as more money has been diverted to the financial sector. This scenario may benefit financial centers, but money tends to drain away from other places. In the last several years, according to economists, velocity has declined sharply because there's less GDP and more money. The money doesn't flow. More money is being printed, but it's not going into circulation.
The current food system takes wealth out of our communities. Local foods may be the best path towards economic recovery. The vision for local food economies is to build health, wealth, connection and capacity.
Buy Kisumu, Build Kisumu